Another week has passed already? There's simply not enough time in the week! Since we slow right down during the weekend to get a little downtime ready to be fresh for another week, here's some interesting bits for Sunday reading.

Missing pieces not covered during the week:

First up, Kickstarter is coming under fire as the CEO has gone hard on their anti-union stance with some details about the situation up on Current Affairs. This kind of behaviour is likely going to put a lot of people off pledging their money towards new games appearing on Kickstarter. Perhaps now it's time for more creators to use IndieGoGo again or maybe take a look at Fig.

Canonical have released the Ubuntu 19.10 beta versions, ready for more users to jump in and test to help make it a solid release. I enjoyed reading the blog post announcement Ubuntu MATE 19.10, written by Martin Wimpress that goes over all the little details they've been putting into making it a spectacular release.

More and more developers have been kicking up a fuss about changes to MacOS, with a lot across our Twitter feed mentioning they will no longer support it with their games in future. Here's an interesting post going over some of the reasons why and another here. Not Linux news, but since MacOS is a smaller platform like Linux, it's a reminder to be a great advocate for a niche gaming platform and when you report bugs be as useful as possible.

I was a guest again on the Linux For Everyone podcast for Episode 10, with a little bit about a fun Linux game.

Something we also didn't cover during the week was Richard Stallman announced his intentions to continue heading the GNU Project. Phoronix reported a short time later that a notice was put up on Stallman.org saying he was actually stepping down, which appears to have vanished. Checking an archive, it did indeed seem to have a statement from Stallman that read "I hereby step down as head of the GNU Project, effective immediately.".

Since I never pass up an opportunity to mention my favourite game; Rocket League now has some special Twitch Prime Content! If you link your Twitch account that has Prime with Rocket League and Steam, you can get some free stuff—nice!

This bit isn't Linux related but it does highlight an issue with developer/publisher relations in the gaming industry. Frogwares, developer of the Sherlock Holmes games and The Sinking City, have gone public calling out Focus Home Interactive due to the publisher removing their games for sale. According to Frogwares, the publisher has refused to transfer the "title IDs" (control of the store page) after the Publishing and Distribution Agreement expired. There's a lot of publishers out there with some really poor contracts, hopefully this won't keep happening to others.

Ending the little news roundup with something slightly amusing. Valve recently fixed a bug that affected Half-Life 2 (and the episodes) as well as Half-Life: Source, where NPCs would no longer blink. An issue that had been around for almost five years. Imagine not being able to blink for five years—the horror. It also fixes a few other little issues like missing sounds and a hitch when saving.

Some awesome games got updates recently:

Factorio, the complex yet inviting game about building massive production chains had a HUGE update recently. I honestly can't tear myself away from the brilliance of it.

Catch monsters, build up a fun team and go on an adventure in Monster Sanctuary with the recent update adding in more creatures, a female character option and more.

September is coming to an end and we have tons planned for October! Plenty of interesting looking games are going to be releasing so it's going to be another extremely busy month. If you enjoy what we do here you can support us through many places like Patreon, Paypal, Liberapay, Flattr and Twitch.

I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. See more from me

Some irrelevant local news: I recently purchased a used DVD copy of Borderlands 2 for $8, the only place it mentioned needing Steam was in tiny font in the system requirements, as such it was a dud since the cd key had already been used, and the cherry on top: the place I bought it from has a no return policy on PC games. Now I sit here contemplating whether or not pirating the game is morally justified at this point or if this is all really my fault for expecting anything different.

BotonoskiSome irrelevant local news: I recently purchased a used DVD copy of Borderlands 2 for $8, the only place it mentioned needing Steam was in tiny font in the system requirements, as such it was a dud since the cd key had already been used, and the cherry on top: the place I bought it from has a no return policy on PC games. Now I sit here contemplating whether or not pirating the game is morally justified at this point or if this is all really my fault for expecting anything different.

Ouch. I would certainly never shop there again but you must have some local consumer organisation that could deal with a case like that? No store should be able to get away with that sort of thing as they shouldn't have accepted it to sell it in the first place. Depends how much you want to push it I guess. Me? I wouldn't stand for it.

BotonoskiSome irrelevant local news: I recently purchased a used DVD copy of Borderlands 2 for $8, the only place it mentioned needing Steam was in tiny font in the system requirements, as such it was a dud since the cd key had already been used, and the cherry on top: the place I bought it from has a no return policy on PC games. Now I sit here contemplating whether or not pirating the game is morally justified at this point or if this is all really my fault for expecting anything different.

More annoying than the money is being cheated. You should be able to file a complaint against the shop in any country. Something like that is simply illegal. Such a shop must be closed. They are fraudsters.

Seems a "high" price to pay for an old game. You could have picked up a brand new Steam key for approx $3-$4 in a suitable sale. Of course, you don't get the physical media or cover artwork. Maybe go back to the shop with the receipt and ask to speak to a manager. They might relent at their previous response.

QuoteMore and more developers have been kicking up a fuss about changes to MacOS, with a lot across our Twitter feed mentioning they will no longer support it with their games in future.

Having maintained macOS builds for my old open source project since what seems like forever, this is something that has been nagging me at the back of my head for a while as well. I have not yet given too much thought about the issue, but will do so when 10.15 is available in a stable enough version to actually risk installing it :-).

This is a prime example though how important an open OS like Linux is, where no single entity is able to control or dictate which software runs and which doesn't.

BotonoskiSome irrelevant local news: I recently purchased a used DVD copy of Borderlands 2 for $8, the only place it mentioned needing Steam was in tiny font in the system requirements, as such it was a dud since the cd key had already been used, and the cherry on top: the place I bought it from has a no return policy on PC games. Now I sit here contemplating whether or not pirating the game is morally justified at this point or if this is all really my fault for expecting anything different.

I'm of the opinion that there are times it's perfectly acceptable to pirate a game, but I don't think this is one of them. The store cheated you, so they're the ones who owe you something.

It's as if they sold you a cracked (physically, not pirated) CD, or one from which the game data had been stripped from the CD. I'd speak with the manager and (politely) explain it that way. If they were stubborn I'd press on that it's really not about the $8 but that I felt I was defrauded of my money, and I'm perfectly willing to contact the Better Business Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, and their District Manager (if it's a chain)---I'll see to it that the Town/County/State attorney's are made aware of how I was defrauded. I'd accept a cash refund, or a refund to my credit card, or a $20 Steam gift card, which would cover the cost of buying it directly from Steam.

BotonoskiSome irrelevant local news: I recently purchased a used DVD copy of Borderlands 2 for $8, the only place it mentioned needing Steam was in tiny font in the system requirements, as such it was a dud since the cd key had already been used, and the cherry on top: the place I bought it from has a no return policy on PC games. Now I sit here contemplating whether or not pirating the game is morally justified at this point or if this is all really my fault for expecting anything different.

Sorry but for me it's obvious that this game was using Steam, all boxed versions need it. I hope you know perfectly well that Steam have the monopoly now on all boxed PC games. There was no way this used copy have worked. Of course the code was already going to be used.

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